David and Thomas Pynchon

August 24, 2009

Hi all—

I met David back in the mid-90s—we were both on the pynchon-l discussion group (as an aside I can tell you that there's lots of fur flying going on on that list but through flame wars and other nastiness, David was always fair and willing to listen and never was condescending or mean to anyone he disagreed with).

There were a few New Yorkers from the list who would meet periodically—I remember fondly David bringing an advanced reading copy of Pynchon's Mason & Dixon in 1997 a few months before the book was released; we met at Swift, a bar on the Lower East Side—fond memories of that night.

After the book was published a few of us (including David and I) went down to the Pennsylvania/Maryland border to find some of markers that Mason & Dixon laid while they were drawing the border in the 1760s—I remember the group of us practically tramping thru people's backyards trying to find the damn things and worried some folks would get triggy happy and shoot us for trespassing on their land ;) —we never did find the marking stones but we did have a nice lunch at the Deer Park Inn in Newark Delaware (where M&D and their band of jolly axemen were purportedly guests way back when).

The other memorable meeting w/David was the surreal night we had dinner with one of Pynchon's friends from college, Jules Siegel's wife Chrissie (who was apparently one of Pynchon's old girlfriends)—and who got good and drunk and annoyingly wondered why we were so interested in Pynchon; we did get her into a cab, at least I saw David off and on during the following years—he gave me the inside scoop of Pynchon's Against the Day and a week or so before he went into the hospital he emailed me to say he was able to nab a copy of Inherent Vice—I hope he was able to read some of it.

I was very moved by the memorial service and I was glad to hear so many loving things about him—there was a large universe revolving around the man and I am thankful I was able to share a small piece of it with him (and indirectly with all of you)

I would love to share a couple of pics I have—one in particular is us on the steps of that place in Newark…

Best
Richard Romeo